As for a semiconductor inspection device, there has been heretofore disclosed a method of bringing sharp-edged probes into contact with a sample under observation with a scanning electron microscope and measuring current-voltage characteristic between the probes by an electrical characteristic measuring circuit to obtain local electrical characteristic of a cell, as described in Patent Literature 1.
There has been further disclosed a method of bringing two probes into contact with wires or pads on opposite sides of a wiring system having a defect and irradiating and scanning charged particle beams on a surface of a semiconductor device to thereby absorb the charged particle beams to the wires, detect the charged particle beams (current) absorbed by the wires, amplify the detected current by an amplifier, convert the amplified current into an image signal and then display the image signal as an absorbed current image on a screen of a computer, as described in Patent Literature 2.